Co-Authors: Eric W. Fowler, and James W. Rawlins
University of Southern Mississippi

Coatings, adhesive and composites are three major areas in materials science where epoxides/epoxy pre-polymers are widely used. Epoxy-hardener reactions and extent of reaction are relevant parameters of an epoxy system with regard to performance. When an epoxy resin is blended with an amine, side reactions like etherification other than epoxy-amine reaction can occur during cure. Epoxy-amine systems cured at ambient as well as elevated temperature were studied. Only epoxy-amine reaction was noted with diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA) based epoxides even at the post-curing condition at 200 °C. The etherification side reaction was found to happen at cure temperature of 200 °C in case of epoxides containing a tertiary amine moiety. To improve the toughness of epoxy-amine polymers, usually tougheners are added to the system. The effect of toughener on the cure of epoxy-amine system was also investigated. It was noticed that tougheners like core-shell rubber particles do not restrict the system from proceeding to complete reaction of epoxy moieties.